I hope everyone is having a wonderful, en-lightening Hanukkah. While the the flame still glow, I hope to fan it with the Torah portion (parsha) that coincides with those flames…
The parsha is called Meekaytz and one of the meanings of this word is harvest. I want to look at the parsha from this point of view.
In order to harvest, you must plant something. And as the saying goes: you reap/harvest what you sow/plant. the parsha starts right out with a harvest: Yoseph, as we saw in the previous week’s parsha, was a bit of a brat. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut; whenever he spoke, he annoyed people. The harvest of his actions was him getting throne into a pit and sold as a slave and brought to Egypt. In Egypt, he still hasn’t learned how to talk to people, which results in him getting throne into jail. Again, we have a harvest.
He does learn from what he reaps though. He learns how and when to speak to people. The harvest he gets from this is that Pharaoh makes him second in command of all of Egypt. The result of Pharaoh planting Yoseph has his number 2 man is Egypt surviving the 7 years of bad famine.
Yoseph’s brothers also harvest in this parsha. They had a task: to get Yoseph to Egypt. The seeds that they planted in how they sent Yoseph result in them being accused of being spies, having to leave one of their brothers in jail (Shimone), the anxiety of discovering the money in their bags, having to tell their father that they must return with Benyameen, and the taking of Benyameen at the very end of the parsha when Yoseph’s silver cup is found in his bag. It is interesting to note that the brothers, when they are first detained as spies, realize their treatment of Yoseph is the root of the current predicament.
Lastly, we come to Yaakov (Jacob). His harvest is the most interesting of all; his seeds were planted when he took the blessings from Esau. When the brothers leave Egypt, they are given food for the journey. The word for food is, “Tzaydeh”, the same word used by Yitzhak (Isaac) when he told Esau to hunt game (tzaydeh) to make into a tasty dish before he could get his father’s blessing. We can see how important the blessing was to Esau by how upset he was when he discovered Yaakov had already received it. (Compare his wailing to how easily he gave Yaakov his birthright). However Yaakov was able to trick Yitzhak into giving him the blessing. And now we see, from this word tzaydeh, that it is time for Yaakov to harvest the fruit of his trick. The harvest for Yaakov is to lose something as precious to him as the blessings were to Esau: the last son of his beloved Rachel. It is either that, or die, for the brothers are told they cannot return to Egypt without their youngest son.
Remember a few paragraphs ago, that I said that Yoseph learns from what he reaps? After one harvests, one eats what they harvest, the good or the bad, and then let go of it, in order to make room for something new, something better. This is what Yoseph does in letting go of shooting off his mouth and becoming wise, which is really a new seed he plants that leads to him harvesting the number 2 job in Egypt. Yaakov also does this. When all the food the brothers brought back is eaten, Yaakov is able to connect to his higher self, as we see for the Torah starts calling him Yisrael (straight to god) again. In this state, he is willing to accept things as they are and let go. He tells his sons to take Benyameen, for, “If I am to be bereaved, I am to be bereaved.” With these words, he has let go of the old harvest, and planted the seeds for a new harvest: His reconnection with Yoseph which we will see next week.
I wish all of you that you accept and ingest all that you harvest, good or bad, and then let go of it, making room for a new planting and a new harvest which will be better then what you hope for.
Shavuah tov, have a good week
About the Author
Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.